Daily Devotion by Ray Stedman

[Obadiah]

A daily devotion for October 5th​

God's Wisdom​

I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God's power.

1 Corinthians 2:3-5

This ought to be one of the most encouraging passages to any of us who have tried to be a witness as a Christian. Speaking of the things of Christ and the things of God is easy in a church like this where you are gathered with Christian friends because nobody objects. However, when you try to talk about these things with unbelievers, people who are committed to the philosophy of taking care of number one first and who are out to seek for fame or fortune or whatever it may be, you find it very difficult. You feel much personal weakness and fear and trembling. That is the way Paul felt, and that ought to be an encouragement to us.

The reason he felt like this is because what he was saying to them was not in line with what the world wants to hear about itself. It did not massage the ego of man; it did not make him sound like he was incredibly important. Paul deliberately rejected that approach which is wrong because it does not help man. Instead, he began to talk about this judgment of God upon the thinking, the attitudes, and the wisdom of man, and it left him feeling rejected. In a sense that is what Paul was suffering in Corinth. He came, but there was no great ego-pleasing reception for him, there were no dinners, there was no Academy Award given to him.

He tells us how he felt. He felt fearful, weak, and ineffective. He felt his words were not outstanding; he felt he did not impress anybody by the way he came at this. Have you ever felt that way? I have, many times. I have sat down with somebody to witness to him and I felt as if I had two tongues and they were stumbling over one another. I did not seem to have the right answers to things. I could only talk about how it affected me; I felt like I was doing nothing effective. Yet Paul was not discouraged. In the book of Acts we are told that after he had been in Corinth for a few months the Lord Jesus appeared to him in a vision and strengthened him and said to him, Do not be afraid, but speak and do not be silent, ... and no man shall attack you to harm you, (Acts 18:9-10). Paul was afraid he was going to be beaten up as he had been in other cities. He was afraid of being branded as a religious fanatic. He did not like those feelings, nevertheless he faithfully began to talk about Jesus Christ.

Soon there was a second visible result. Paul calls it the demonstration of the Spirit's power. As Paul in this great sense of weakness told the facts and the story out of the simple earnestness of his heart, God's spirit began to work and people started coming to Christ. You read the account in Acts. First, the rulers of the synagogue turned to Christ, and then hundreds of the common, ordinary, plain people of Corinth began to become Christians. Soon there was a great spiritual awakening, and before the city of Corinth knew what had happened, a church had been planted in its midst and a ferment was running throughout the city. I believe that this working through our human inadequacy is God's continuous and perennial way of evangelism.

Does that encourage you? It does me. You may sit down with somebody over a cup or coffee and hardly know how to say it, but you stammer out some word about what Jesus Christ has meant to you, and the earnestness in your face and the love and compassion in your heart comes through in that simple way and somebody is touched who would never have been reached by eloquent oratory or rhetoric. That is what Paul is talking about, the simplicity of the approach. He knew what he was doing because he was simply being honest with them. He was telling them what was true about their life.

Father, thank you that you have come to fill me with the glory of the truth and of life, of hope and of courage, of faith and fulfillment. I pray that, despite fear and trembling, I may be willing to speak for you.

Life Application​

Do we fall apart when our attempted witness is received with rejection and skepticism? Are we learning to speak the Truth with compassion? Do we count on the power of God, rather than our own human resources?

Daily Devotion © 2014, 2025 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A daily devotion for October 6th​

God's Teacher​

...these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who knows a person's thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.

1 Corinthians 2:10-11

That passage introduces to us how this mighty teacher come from God, the Holy Spirit himself, is designed to instruct us with the Word of God and lead us into the truth of God that will change our lives and expose us to this secret and hidden wisdom of God (v.7). When you discover that, life is going to be exciting and adventurous, like nothing you ever dreamed before, for this line of truth is designed to set us free, to let us be the men and women God designed us to be.

Notice how the apostle first underscores here the spirit's knowledge: No one understands the things of man except the spirit of man which is in him. Have you ever tried to talk to your plants? We are told that plants can respond to our moods and reflect our attitudes. I know a woman who even prays over each plant. I don't know what it does for the plant, but it probably helps her a great deal. But it is evident that plants do not talk back. Life is constructed at various levels; the higher can take hold of the lower, but the lower cannot reach up to the higher. We have plant life, we have animal life, then human life, then the angelic life, and finally, divine life. The higher can reach down to encompass the lower, but the lower cannot reach up to the higher. That is Paul's argument here. Though no animal can reach into the realm of human relationship and converse with us, other human beings like ourselves can.

Now here is this great Being of God in our universe, this fantastic Being of infinite wisdom and mighty power. How can we know anything about him? Paul's answer is that we cannot, except he discloses himself to us. You cannot find out God by searching. Man by wisdom does not know God. Man by investigation of all the natural forces of life will never find his way to the heart of God. Only God himself must disclose himself, must open himself to us. That he has done by means of the Spirit of God — the Spirit has come to teach us about God.

The Lord Jesus himself appeared as a man so that we might have a visible demonstration of what God is like. The simplest answer to the question, What is God like? is to say he is like Jesus. But it is the work of the Spirit to show us what Jesus is like. Jesus said, He will take of the things of mine and show them unto you, (John 16:14 KJV). You can read the record of the Gospels, and read the historical record of Jesus, but the living Lord does not stand out from the pages merely by reading them. It is as the Spirit illuminates those pages and makes them vivid and real that you find yourself confronted with the living, breathing Christ himself. That is the work of the Holy Spirit.

Father, how grateful I am for this mighty teacher, the Spirit of God, come from you into my heart to instruct me of the things of Jesus and give to me his very life that I might live a new and different way.

Life Application​

Where can we go when our efforts to know God by means of human wisdom end in a vacuum? Have we realized the power of God's self-disclosure as the Holy Spirit reveals Him in the Person of Jesus Christ?

Daily Devotion © 2014, 2025 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A daily devotion for October 7th​

God's Servants​

What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe — as the Lord has assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.

1 Corinthians 3:5-7

Paul is writing of the true view of ministry and ministers, and he does not mean by ministers only the apostles, or only a select group called the clergy, the pastors. This is a devilish idea that has possessed the church. It sees the clergy as different people, with a special pipeline to God. That idea is never found in Scripture. No, in Scripture all Christians are in the ministry, everyone without exception. All are given gifts by the Spirit. All are expected to have a function, a service that God uses. It does not have to be in the meeting of the church. It is out in the world, anywhere you are.

But how are we to view one another? As big shots striving to see who can get the most recognition, as dignitaries with special dress to indicate our rank and style of life? Are we to be the heavies, the bosses, the brass? No, Paul says we are servants; that is all. Everyone, servants of Christ. That is the highest rank possible in the church, and everybody has it to start with. Therefore, there is no need for competition or rivalry in any sense at all. We are all servants of Christ. Jesus himself told us what our attitude is to be: The Son of Man, he said, came not to be ministered unto but to minister, and give himself a ransom for many, (Matthew 20:28, Mark 10:45 KJV). Now that is serving, it is not being ministered unto.

How do you think of yourself when you come to church? What is your reason for coming to church? Is it to be ministered unto? Do you judge the purpose of our assembly together in order that you might have a blessing, or is it that you might be a blessing? The attitude of a servant is always, What can I do for another? In the process you will find yourself abundantly ministered unto. But we hear so much of this cult of the self-life today that insists that everything has to meet my needs. That is pre-eminent. Now that is the world's thinking, isn't it? The apostle is telling us that this thinking will be nothing but trouble in the church; it creates divisions and factions. We must come to see each other as servants of Christ, mutually living and ministering to one another as God gives opportunity to do. This is what the Lord Himself demonstrated for us. Are we in competition? No, says Paul, we're in cooperation. I planted; Apollos watered; but God gave the growth. We are doing different things, but we need both of them.

One of the glories of the church is that nobody does the same thing. Churches that try to turn out people that all look alike, dress alike, carry the same kind of notebook, speak the same kind of language, use the same version of the Bible are missing what God has in mind, because we are all to be different, yet working together and needing one another. The evangelist plants, the Bible teacher waters. Well, which is more important, Bible teaching or evangelizing? Paul's answer is: Neither! God can do away with both of those. The important thing is not what either can do, but what God alone can do — take that truth and change lives with it. Evangelists cannot do that. Bible teachers cannot do that. Only God gives increase. Only God opens the mind, changes the heart, and makes people different. That is the thing that ought to be emphasized then, instead of putting all this emphasis upon our methods, and our abilities to do this and that, and all the educational demands that some people want to make for training. That is all emphasizing the people, not the God who gives the increase.

Lord Jesus I ask you to take my life and use me where I work, where I live, in my home. I know this is what you love to do, and I ask that you will grant me the grace to understand how to do this, and yield myself to you.

Life Application​

What is the highest rank possible in the Body of Christ? Does this leave room for competition, comparisons or pedestals? Do we serve with expectation of increased status? Whose power produces growth and fruit from serving?

Daily Devotion © 2014, 2025 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A daily devotion for October 8th​

God's Builders​

If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved — even though only as one escaping through the flames.

1 Corinthians 3:14-15

In 2 Corinthians, Paul says, We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:10), and in John's book of Revelation he describes the Lord before whom we appear. John says, His eyes are like a flame of fire, (Revelation 1:14). Those flaming, searching eyes are going to examine all our Christian lives, what they have been made of, what we are building with. Paul says in 2 Corinthians, Then we shall receive the things done in the body whether they be good or bad (2 Corinthians 5:10) — the same two categories — whether they are built on the revelation of the mind and Spirit of God, gold, silver and precious stones, or whether they reflect the current philosophies of the spirit of the age around us.

What are we building with? One or the other. If it is good it will endure; it will stand the test, and we will be given a reward. What is the reward? There are a lot of guesses as to what this is because the Scriptures do not tell us flat out, but I think there are hints that indicate what it is. When Paul wrote to the Thessalonians he said, Are you not our crown of rejoicing? (1 Thessalonians 2:19 KJV). I think the reward is simply joy, joy over having spent your life in a way that counts.

Did you ever watch a winning team at the end of a game? Do you notice what they do? They go crazy! Grown men jump on each other's backs; they pound one another, and hug one another, and even kiss one another. Why? They are filled with joy because the efforts they put forth produced results and it was satisfying to them. That was their reward. Did you ever watch the losing team? There is no jumping around and slapping one another on the back. Sadness and gloom prevail; they are ashamed because all their efforts were to no avail. It was all wasted effort. All of us shall have some of both in our lives. There is nobody who is a Christian who will not have some degree of gold, silver and precious stones because God guarantees it by having come into our lives as Christians. But there can also be a lot of wood, hay and stubble too, built upon the philosophy of the flesh instead of the Spirit.

What is your life going to count for? Every one of us is investing his life in something. You cannot live without making an investment. What is it in? Will it stand the test? In the great day when all the universe sees things the way they are, will you be filled with joy that your life was invested in what stood the test and contributed to the glory of the Lord himself? Or will you be ashamed that you wasted all these years making an impression on people, but it was all burned up in the fire? I know there are people who do not like this kind of preaching. They say we ought to all preach the grace of God, but the Scriptures teach us that we have some choice in this matter. Are our lives going to be lived on the basis of gold, silver and precious stones, growing out of that revelation of God by the Spirit, or are they going to reflect the empty, vain philosophies of the world around so that we live only for pleasure, fame and power?

Lord, I know that these words are not sent to condemn me, but to encourage me to choose the right path and to invest my life in ways that will fulfill the promise that you have given me. Help me to manifest this increasingly as I go on day by day, guided and guarded by your Spirit.

Life Application​

Are we going for the gold, following the wisdom of our Master Architect's plan and purpose? When crunch time comes, will our life assessment bring honor to Him, and resulting joy to us, His building?

Daily Devotion © 2014, 2025 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A daily devotion for October 9th​

All Things Are Yours​

All things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future — all are yours, and you are of Christ, and Christ is of God.

1 Corinthians 21b-23

Paul is showing what happens when you choose the wisdom of God and the ways of God. You end up gaining the whole world. That is what Jesus said — The meek shall inherit the earth, (Matthew 5:5). What a great and broad vista opens up to us in these words! After all, the trouble with the world is, if the world, or the worldly church, is offering you something, and you want it badly enough — its fame, pleasure, honor, wealth, whatever it is — you will probably get it. But that is all you will get.

Jesus said that if you do your giving to be seen of men you have your reward (Matthew 6:5). That is it. You will never get another one; nothing waiting for you beyond, no treasure laid up in heaven. If you do your praying to be heard of men so that you get a reputation for piety and godliness, well, you will get the reputation, but that is all you get. It is the world that is narrow; it is the world that is crabbed and withered and limited in its whole approach. But, as Paul reveals here, those who choose God never lose.

This is right in line with Jesus' great principle, If you save your life you will lose it, but if you give up your life for my sake you will save it, (Matthew 16:25, Mark 8:35). Paul looks all around and says, He who lets God choose, ends up with everything. Why do you divide between Paul and Apollos and Cephas, and choose one among them? You can have them all, he says. They are all yours. Paul, who planted — his whole ministry is yours. Apollos, the waterer — his ministry is yours; you can get the benefit of it. Cephas, the rock — whatever there is of value in his ministry is yours. In fact the whole world is open to you. Led of the Spirit of God, you can go anywhere you want and God will give you things that money cannot buy.

I have had this experience many times of enjoying things that millionaires own, but I get to use and they do not. The world is yours. Life with all its possibilities is open before you. God can lead you into where the real living is. Even death with its threat is already mastered; it is already yours. When you come to it, it will minister to you — not take from you. It will bring you into glory. The present, the future, all things are yours because you are Christ's, and Christ is God's and therefore everything he owns is yours. All things belong to you because you belong to the One to whom all things belong.

That is an incredible vista, isn't it? And yet those words are true. That is what God has in mind for his people. As we choose the life style we are going to have, do we have the faith and the courage to set aside the life style of the world around us, with all its demands for conformity, and walk with God? When we do, all that God possesses becomes ours. We become children of a heavenly Being who makes it all available to us.

Lord, thank you for opening this vista of life in which all that you possess becomes mine.

Life Application​

Are we open and willing to receive our full inheritance in Christ? Are we learning to receive and use His good gifts at His discretion and with thankfulness for His perfect provision for our needs?

Daily Devotion © 2014, 2025 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A daily devotion for October 10th​

Stewards of the Mysteries of God​

This, then, is how you ought to regard us: as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the mysteries God has revealed. Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful.

1 Corinthians 4:1-2

A minister of Christ is to be a steward entrusted with what Paul calls the mysteries God has revealed, that secret and hidden wisdom of God, these valuable truths which are only found in the revelation of the Word of God and nowhere else. Ministers are responsible to dispense these truths continually to the congregation so that lives are changed and lived on the basis of these remarkable truths. These are truths about life, about our families, about God, and ourselves. These truths lie beyond all secular research and opinion polls; they are undiscoverable by natural reason or observation. These mysteries, when understood, are the basis upon which all God's purposes in our lives are worked out.

Paul says that stewards are to be found faithful. Faithful at what? Faithful at dispensing the mysteries so people understand them. You may fail at many things as a teacher, a preacher, a leader of a class. You may not make it in many areas, but do not miss it in this one. Be sure that you are setting forth the mysteries of God. That is what stewards will be judged on.

What are these mysteries? Here are some of them: There is the mystery of the kingdom of God, (Mark 4:11 KJV). What does it mean? It means an understanding of God at work in history, how he is working through the events of our day and of the days of the past, and how he uses these events that fill the pages of our newspapers to carry out his purposes. There is the mystery of iniquity (2 Thessalonians 2:7 KJV), of lawlessness. This is the explanation we desperately need to be reminded of continually, of why we are never able to make any progress when it comes to solving human dilemmas — why every generation without exception repeats the struggle, problems and difficulties of the previous generation. Then there is the counteraction to that — the mystery of godliness, (1 Timothy 3:16 KJV). This is the remarkable secret that God has provided by which a Christian is enabled to live right in the midst of the pressures of the world with all of its illusion and all of its danger, not to run away from it but to refuse to conform to it and do so in a loving, gracious way. What is the secret? It is the secret of an imparted life — Christ in you, the hope of glory, (Colossians 1:27b RSV). Christ in you, available to you — his life, his wisdom, his strength, his power to act available to you — to enable you to do what you do not think you can do at the moment, but, when you choose to do, you find you have the strength to perform. That is the mystery of godliness, the most life-transforming doctrine that has ever been set before man, radical in its effect. Then there is the mystery of the church (Ephesians 3:1-6), that strange new society that God is building which is to be a demonstration of a totally different life style before a watching world, and which is to repel the impact of the world upon it, and, instead, be an impact upon the world around to change it. Those who are called to teach this in a church congregation are stewards of that mystery, entrusted with it to set it out and to help people to face the facts of life without fear and favor so that all can experience both the ecstasy and the agony of Christian experience.

Thank you, Lord, for these insightful words that help me to understand how the church functions. Help me to support those who teach and preach and hold them up in prayer before you.

Life Application​

Whether we teach, or are being taught, we need to know the four mysteries revealed in, and only in Scripture. Can we identify them? Are we giving priority to learning and sharing this transcendent Truth?

Daily Devotion © 2014, 2025 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A daily devotion for October 12th​

Scandal in the Church​

I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people — not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such people. What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside. Expel the wicked person from among you.

1 Corinthians 5:9-13

Paul refers to a letter that he had written to them, a letter that is lost to us. In it, Paul had evidently said something about not associating with immoral people, and the Corinthians had taken it to mean (as many Christians seem to feel today), that they were not to have anything to do with unbelievers who lived immoral lives.

I am amazed at how that very attitude which Paul was attempting to correct here in this letter has pervaded the evangelical world. I meet people who refuse to have anybody come into their homes who is not a Christian — people who want nothing to do with anybody who lives in a way that is offensive to the Lord. I remember in my early pastorate going to a couple and asking them to open their home for a Bible class. The lady looked horrified and said, Oh! I could never do that. I asked, Why not? Why, she said, people who smoke would come in. My home is dedicated to God and I am not going to have any smoking going on there.

That is a misunderstanding of the very thing Paul is talking about. We cannot avoid the world — we were sent into it. The Lord Jesus said to his disciples, Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves, (Matthew 10:16 KJV). That is where we belong. Their habits may be offensive to us, but that is understandable. We do not have to pronounce judgment on them; God will do that. We are to love them and understand that they do not have any basis of knowledge for a change. We are not to demand it of them before we begin to show friendship and love and reach out to them to help them to see their need, to see the One who can answer the hunger of their hearts. What we offer the world is the gospel, not condemnation but the good news.

But when it comes to the church, we are to judge the church for specific wrongdoings. Notice how Paul lists them. It is not because they are hard to live with or they are impatient people or they are obnoxious Christians — you are not to judge them on that basis. But if they are immoral, greedy, idolaters, revilers, drunkards or robbers then they are to be judged by the actions of the church, even to the point of social pressures: Do not even eat with them, he says. If they will not listen, then withdraw from them. It comes at last to ultimate exclusion, as he has indicated in this passage. What health would return to the world, and to the church, if the church would begin to behave this way! The reason the world is going downhill rapidly is because the church lets it by not maintaining the standards that God has given to us here. The purpose of a passage like this is to call us back to what God has given us, and to recognize the unique position the church holds in the world today — when it begins to walk in the beauty of holiness and enjoy the privileges that God has given to us. When we live in victory over the forces that destroy others, then people begin to see that there is meaning, purpose and reason for the salvation we profess to have.

Thank you, Father, for your honest statement of what is the truth about me. You are the God of truth. You do not spare me, and you do not condemn me either. You do not wipe me out, but you do tell me the truth. We see behind it, Lord, your loving father's heart of concern. Help me to judge my life in these areas according to your Word, and to walk in the light and the power of it.

Life Application​

Do we share and care with God about the spiritual health of His Body? Are we judging non-Christians rather than targeting our individual and united godliness? What may be preventing our effective witness beyond the church walls?

Daily Devotion © 2014, 2025 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A daily devotion for October 13th​

The Wrong Way to Right Wrongs​

If any of you has a dispute with another, do you dare to take it before the ungodly for judgment instead of before the Lord's people? Or do you not know that the Lord's people will judge the world? And if you are to judge the world, are you not competent to judge trivial cases? Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more the things of this life!

1 Corinthians 6:1-3

The apostle does not use the word stupid here, but his implication is that these people are very foolish for doing what they are doing. They were obviously engaging in lawsuits, dragging them before the Roman courts, and having all their quarrels and dirty linen washed in public and settled by a secular court. This, the apostle says, is foolish, and he has two reasons for implying this.

First, he implies that it is an act of audacious boldness: Dare any one of you having a grievance against his brother take it to a law court to settle? His clear implication is that this is an audacious act; it is an outrageous act; it is a bold, daring thing to do. Paul implies that, of course, by the word he uses — that one who does such is uncaring; he has reached the point where he does not care what anybody thinks or feels and he is acting regardless of the injuries that may be done to others. Paul then suggests, in the two questions he asks, that anybody who does such a thing is really an ignorant person: Do you not know that the church is going to judge the world, and do not you know that the church is going to judge angels?

These questions he asks imply a certain degree of knowledge that the Corinthians ought to have had. Do you not know, he says, that the saints will judge the world? Surely he is referring to those passages both in the Gospels and in the Epistles where we are clearly told that when the Lord returns the saints are going to share the throne of judgment with him. We are to rule and to reign with Christ, entering into judgment with him. We are not told whether we are all assigned a little throne to sit on, and have a certain number of people come to us, or whether we divide up according to the alphabet. We are, however, to enter into the mind and heart of God as he examines the motives and hearts, the thoughts and innermost desires and urges of men. In Chapter 4, remember, Paul said that we are not to judge before the Lord who will examine the motives, the hidden things of the heart. But we are learning how to do that, and that is the point Paul is raising here. He does not mean to put down the systems of justice that were practiced in that day or any day. Paul admired and honored Roman law -- he himself called upon it for defense on occasion -- but he is saying that human law by its very nature has to deal with trivial, superficial things, with actions, and not with urges and deep, hidden motives.

Then the apostle goes even further and says, Do you not know that we are to judge angels? Just think of that! We do not know much about angels. They are beings of a higher order than we are. They are different in their very nature than we, and yet the amazing statement of Scripture is that God is preparing a people who are going to be so capable of delving into the motives, and hidden desires, and urges of all beings, that some day they will sit with him in judging the angels that have fallen. You can see Paul's argument then: Is it not rather ridiculous that you people who are going to have to deal in such difficult and hidden and subtle matters as the judgment of the world and of angels cannot even settle these little squabbles among yourselves? It is almost like having a mathematician who works with those great computers call in a ninth-grader and ask him for help to balance his checkbook. It's ridiculous, isn't it?

Father, teach me to understand more thoroughly the great sweep of Scripture extending even beyond this life where I am now learning things and principles that I will be putting into practice in the life to come.

Life Application​

Are we maximizing the trivial and momentary, while trivializing the essential and eternal events of our lives? Are we viewing God's equipping and training as preparation for the big picture beyond this time warp?

Daily Devotion © 2014, 2025 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A daily devotion for October 3rd​

God's Nonsense​

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written: I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.

1 Corinthians 1:18-19

The theme of this section is the power of the cross, and Paul is going to show clearly what the cross does in human thinking and in human affairs. The cross has become the symbol of Christianity today. Women wear it on chains around their necks; we use it as decorations. We have become so familiar with the cross that we have forgotten much of the impact it had in the first century. It was, for these early Christians, and for those among whom they lived, a horrible symbol. If you had used it then as a symbol it would have made people shudder. We would get much closer to it today if we substituted a symbol of an electric chair for the cross. Wouldn't it be strange driving across this country to see church steeples with electric chairs on top?

The cross is significant in Christianity because it exposes the fundamental conflict of life. The cross gets down below all our surface attempts at compromise and cuts through all human disagreement. Once you confront the cross and its meaning, you find yourself unable to escape that final judgment of life as to whether you are committed to error or committed to truth.

We must understand what Paul means by the word of the cross. First of all, it means the basic announcement of the crucifixion of Jesus. There are many religious groups based upon various philosophical concepts. But when you come to Christianity you do not start with philosophy, you start with facts of history that cannot be thrown out. One of them is the incarnation of Jesus, the fact that he was born as a man and came among us. Another of the great facts of our faith is the crucifixion. Jesus died. It was done at a certain point of time in history and cannot be evaded. This is part of the word of the cross. He did not deserve it, but by the judgment of the Romans and Jews alike he was put to death for a crime that he did not commit.

Paul is pointing to the judgment that the cross makes upon human life. When you say that Jesus was crucified you are saying that when the finest man who ever lived takes our place, he deserves nothing but the instant judgment of God. And that is a judgment on all of us. That is what people do not like about the cross. It condemns our righteousnesses. It casts aspersion on all our good efforts.

The word of the cross always produces two reactions. First, the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing. It is silliness, absurdity, nonsense, to those who are perishing. If you have ever tried to witness to somebody who has a sense of sufficiency about himself, you have discovered the folly of the cross. To come and tell such a person that all his efforts and all his impressive record of achievement is worth nothing in God's sight, you will immediately run into the offense of the cross.

The other reaction is that the cross is the power of God to those of us who are being saved. To us who are being saved, the cross is the key to the release of all God's blessing in human life. It is the way to experience the healing of God in the heart, the deliverance from the reign of sin, and the entry into wholeness, peace, and joy. The cross is an inescapable part of that process.

Thank you, Father for the cross. Thank you that I no longer have to prove myself worthy of your love, but that through the cross you are changing me into the likeness of Christ.

Life Application​

What are the two inescapable implications of the Cross of Christ? What provision does Christ's sacrifice make for us to live as new creations, in the liberty of forgiveness and the power of His indwelling Life?

Daily Devotion © 2014, 2025 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A daily devotion for October 15th​

Sex in Marriage​

The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband. The wife does not have authority over her own body but yields it to her husband. In the same way, the husband does not have authority over his own body but yields it to his wife. Do not deprive each other except perhaps by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.

1 Corinthians 7:3-5

The major thrust of this paragraph is that sex in marriage is designed for the fulfillment of each partner. Paul does not say to the husband and the wife, Demand your own sexual rights. He never puts it in that way, and yet I have been involved in scores of cases where one of the major problems of the marriage was that one partner, usually the man, demanded his sexual rights from his wife. Nothing is more destructive to marital happiness than that. To mistake and mistreat the passage where it speaks of the wife not ruling over her own body and thinking of this as giving license to the husband to demand sex whenever he wants it is to destroy the whole beauty of sex in marriage.

If we understand that it is going to make a big difference in many marriages, and, if you reflect on it a moment, you will see why. Sex is designed so that we have no control over it ourselves within marriage. We need another to minister to us, and that is designed of God to teach us how to relate and fulfill the basic law of life which Jesus put in these terms when he said, If you attempt to save your life you will lose it (Matthew 16:25). If you try to meet your own need, if you put that first in your life, the result will be that you will lose everything you are trying to gain. Instead of finding fulfillment you will find emptiness, and you will end your years looking back upon a wasted experience. You cannot get fulfillment that way.

That is not merely good advice — that is a law of life, as inviolable as the law of gravity. The only way to find your needs met and yourself fulfilled is to fulfill another's needs. Throw your life away, Jesus said, and you will find it. That is what sex is all about. It is designed not to have your needs met, but to meet another's needs. Thus, in marriage, you have a beautiful reciprocity. In the process of devoting yourself to the enjoyment of your mate, and to giving him or her the most exquisite sense of pleasure that you can, you find your own needs met.

This is why God made us with that quality of needing someone else to fulfill us sexually. This is why unresponsiveness in a partner in sex always creates a deep-seated problem in a marriage and a rift occurs. God has given us the ability to give a gift of love and response to another person, and the joy of doing so is what creates the ecstasy of sexual love in marriage.

So important is this to marriage that the apostle goes on to say that it takes precedence over everything else in your life except an occasional spiritual retreat for prayer. Do not refuse one another except perhaps by agreement... If you are going to do this, it has to be a mutual thing. You must not give up or deny your partner the right to this kind of enjoyment. To unilaterally take action to refuse to involve yourself in a sexual union in marriage is to violate this very command of God, and to hurt the marriage very severely. It can be such a dangerous thing in marriage that Paul says, Be careful. Don't continue it very long, and come together again, lest Satan be given an advantage over you. Those are very wise words, and Paul is underscoring here much that is causing problems in marriages today.

Father, thank you for your frankness in dealing with these matters. Teach me, Lord, the beauty and the glory and the joy of sexuality. Help me to learn how to express it in ways that give honor to you and fulfill your divine intention for me.

Life Application​

Is our perspective toward sexual intimacy in marriage consistent with the basic spiritual principles for all of life? Do we need to examine the inconsistencies, and the ways in which they may be both unloving and ungodly?

Daily Devotion © 2014, 2025 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A daily devotion for October 16th​

With God​

Were you a slave when you were called? Don't let it trouble you — although if you can gain your freedom, do so. For the one who was a slave when called to faith in the Lord is the Lord's freed person; similarly, the one who was free when called is Christ's slave. You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of human beings. Brothers and sisters, each person, as responsible to God, should remain in the situation they were in when God called them.

1 Corinthians 7:21-24

Paul is dealing here with the common problem of slavery in that day, and yet what he says is interesting. Basically, what he says is, To be a slave or to be free is not the overriding consideration of life: it is what you are inside that counts. In the novel Roots, and in the television portrayal of that book, it was very evident that some of the slaves who were believers in Christ were much more noble, more loving, more compassionate, more understanding, demonstrated more integrity than their free masters. This whole passage calls us to the fact that that is the true freedom.

Paul is not denying the possibility that God may so arrange things that an opportunity for freedom is given. If so, Take it, he says. Basically, it is a gift of God. Christianity, though it is revolutionary, it is not designed to be radically so. It is not a violent overthrow of systems of the past, but it is designed to free from within. This is what the apostle is saying. So if you are in a situation that is difficult to handle, and hard to bear, remember that is only external; it is only temporary and passing, and you can be free in Christ in a most beautiful and effective and influential way.

The key words in verse 24 are with God. Regardless of what your situation may be, even if you cannot change it, even if it is a so-called difficult marriage, remember that God is able to meet you right where you are and to fill your life with love and joy and peace despite the struggles. The struggles themselves will help you do it if you understand them as God's choice for you. So, Paul says, ... do not become slaves of human beings. How do you become slaves of human beings? Well, you do when you conform to the world around, when you let the opinions of the world shape your judgments as to what you ought to be in marriage, or whether you ought to get a divorce or not. You are becoming a slave to men, instead of to the Lord, when you do that. When you follow after teachers in the church and think of one as being better and preferable to the other, you are becoming a slave of men. When you give way to the secular pressures to sexual infidelity you are becoming a slave of men. Do not become slaves of men, Paul says, but remain where you are, with God.

Thank you, Father, for the grace that comes to help me live under the difficult situations in which I find myself.

Life Application​

Although we are probably not enslaved legally, what are some habits and/or emotional commitments to which we may be held hostage? What are some specific ways in which God's rightful ownership sets us free?

Daily Devotion © 2014, 2025 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A daily devotion for October 17th​

The Time Is Short​

What I mean, brothers and sisters, is that the time is short. From now on those who have wives should live as if they do not; those who mourn, as if they did not; those who are happy, as if they were not; those who buy something, as if it were not theirs to keep; those who use the things of the world, as if not engrossed in them. For this world in its present form is passing away.

1 Corinthians 7:29-31

All Paul says here hangs on the words the time is short. While Paul did anticipate the Lord Jesus Christ returning in his lifetime, I view this as Paul referring to the general brevity of life. The longer we live the more we sense how time seems to fly. As someone has said, About the time your face clears up, your mind begins to go. That's how life seems to be.

But not just Christians see that; non-Christians also speak of the shortness of time, and their reaction is, Well, if life is so short, then let's grab all we can. Let's live life with gusto. There is nothing beyond, so let’s get all we can. Their philosophy seems to be: If you are going to be a passenger on the Titanic you might as well go first class. Live it up. Eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die. But that's not to be the Christian's philosophy, Paul tells us.

Clearly the Christian response is: Use your short time for eternal purposes. Be sure that the aim and center of your life is not just making a living, but making a life. That's what he is saying, and why he says, let those who have wives live as though they had none. He is not encouraging you to neglect your wife or your responsibilities to your children and your home. What he is saying is that we are to keep things in proper focus. Do not let maintaining your home be the major reason for your existence, or give all your time to enjoying this present life. Life has higher demands and higher challenges.

Therefore, even marriage, God-given and beautiful as it is, is not the highest choice an individual can make. If some choose not to marry, to instead pursue other standards, especially spiritual involvement, their choice should be affirmed as good and proper. No one should put them down for it. So his word to us is, Do not let things that the world around you lives for become the center of your life. Joys and sorrows are seen quite differently from the viewpoint of eternity. Success in business is not life's greatest aim, for all in this world is passing away, even its fame and glory.

I once visited the museum tomb of General Douglas MacArthur, who was in my day a great American hero. I remembered his welcome in San Francisco when he finally returned home after World War II, and the ticker-tape parades he received both there and in New York. Cabinets held his medals and memorabilia, letters he had written during his life, and uniforms he'd worn. All were gathering dust, and paint was peeling from the ceiling. Standing there I suddenly and deeply sensed the fading glory of earth. I began to compare it with what the Scriptures say awaits the believer in Jesus Christ: that exceeding weight of glory ( 2 Corinthians 4:17) which Paul says is beyond all comparison. It is something so fantastic, so mind-blowing, so unbelievable that nothing we know of on earth can remotely compare to what awaits those who have found God's purposes and realized God's fullness in this life. How tawdry this tomb seemed. The glory of MacArthur was nothing compared with the glory of the simplest believer in Christ. How important therefore it is to pursue that kind of glory, rather than empty baubles that only gather dust. This is Paul’s point — this present world is passing away.

Thank you, Father, for the hope I have in you, and that nothing in this short life can compare with what you have in store for me. Help me live, not for things that are passing away, but for that which will last for eternity.

Life Application​

Whether brief or longer, time is given us by God with a view to eternity. Are we investing this priceless gift in the tawdry and perishable things of earth, or in the timeless, imperishable and invaluable purposes of God's good and perfect will?

Daily Devotion © 2014, 2025 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A daily devotion for October 18th​

For Love's Sake​

Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that We all possess knowledge. But knowledge puffs up while love builds up.

1 Corinthians 8:1

The best meat in Corinth was found right next to the idol temple. In these pagan temples live animals were sacrificed. Like the Jews, they reserved some of this meat for their priests and for public sale. So, the best meat markets in Corinth were right next to an idol temple. Everyone in town knew that if you ate some of that meat you were eating meat that had been offered to an idol. So, the question arose among the Christians: If a Christian eats meat offered to an idol is he somehow participating in the worship of that idol?

A group within the church was saying, Yes, that’s exactly what happens. When these local pagans see a known Christian sitting in the public restaurant next to the temple, enjoying a steak that had been offered to the idol, they will think that person agrees with with the pagan ideas about that idol. As a consequence, that Christian is giving a false testimony; he is not clearly declaring that Christ has replaced all idols. Furthermore, he is causing weak Christians to stumble, ones who might easily be led back into worship of an idol by their actions.

But there was another party that said, No, that’s not true. An idol is nothing but a piece of wood or stone. How can you worship something that really does not exist? How can we deliver people from their idolatrous ways if we act as if there is something to this? It is better that we act according to the knowledge of reality that God has brought us to in Christ. Let's enjoy our freedom and eat this meat without any question. It is perfectly good meat, and it would be wrong to not use it. So, there was a division within the church.

Paul's argument is that such problems cannot be solved merely based on, We know such and such and so and so to be true, therefore, we are free to act. No, Paul says, knowledge or doctrine alone is not enough. You need love. Knowledge puffs up but love builds up. Love looks at somebody else's situation, not always one's own. Knowledge, in other words, is self-centered, but love reaches out to include someone else in your thinking.

Dr. H. A. Ironside gave an illustration of this. He was at a picnic with other Christians, including a man converted from Islam. A girl brought a basket of sandwiches to this man and offered one. He said, What kind are they? She said, All we have left are ham or pork. He said, Don't you have any beef? She replied, No, they're all gone. Well, he said, then I won't have any. Knowing he was a Christian, she said, Well, sir, I am really surprised. Don't you know that as a Christian you are freed from food restrictions, and you can eat pork or ham or whatever you like? He said, Yes, I know I am free to eat pork, but I am also free not to eat it. I'm still involved with my family in the Middle East, and I know that when I go home each year, and come to my father's door, the first question he will ask is, Have those infidels taught you to eat the filthy hog meat yet? If I have to say, Yes, father, I will be banished from that home and have no further witness in it. But if I can always say, No, father, no pork has ever passed my lips, then I have admittance to the family circle and I am free to tell them of the joy I have found in Jesus Christ. Therefore I am free to eat, or I am free not to eat, as the case may be.

That story sets this problem in proper perspective. We do not have to claim our right to freedom based on knowledge. We are free to give up our rights anytime the situation warrants. Though we have the rights, we also have the right not to exercise them for the sake of love.

Help me, Father, to act in love in what I do and not act merely in knowledge alone. Thank you for the truth that sets me free, but also for the love that still restrains me and makes me give consideration to someone else's welfare.

Life Application​

God's love for us sets us free to make loving choices. Do our relationships demonstrate thoughtful responses which originate in godly love?

Daily Devotion © 2014, 2025 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A daily devotion for October 19th​

Duty and Delight​

For when I preach the gospel, I cannot boast, since I am compelled to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! If I preach voluntarily, I have a reward; if not voluntarily, I am simply discharging the trust committed to me. What then is my reward? Just this: that in preaching the gospel I may offer it free of charge, and so not make full use of my rights as a preacher of the gospel.

1 Corinthians 9:16-18

What Paul is saying is that he has no sense of pride and achievement because he faithfully preached the gospel without charge. On the contrary, he really has no choice about preaching the gospel. I am compelled to preach. In other words, If I do not preach I am miserable. I have really no choice in this matter. I would much rather preach than experience what I know I am going to experience if I do not: the lash of my conscience, the sense of failure in what God has called me to do. I cannot live with that. Woe to me if I preach not the gospel. He says, If I do it willingly I gain a reward. If I accept this commission from God, and joyfully do what he tells me to do, it is to my great advantage. I enjoy it; but whether I like it or not, I have to do it.

There is nothing wrong with a sense of duty; the feeling that God has given you a job to do, and you have to do it whether you like it or not. Many of us are uneasy with that kind of motivation, but Paul felt it. He said, There is no choice for me in the matter of preaching. Whether I like it or not I have a commission to fulfill, and if I want my life to be worth anything at all, I had better do it.

But that is not why he does it without charge. He tells us the reason in verse 18: What then is my reward? Just this: that in preaching the gospel I may offer it free of charge, and so not make full use of my rights as a preacher of the gospel. He is saying that the thing that motivated him, the thing that drove him to work late hours at night making tents so he would earn a living and would not have to be supported by anybody in the church in Corinth, was the sheer delight it gave him to bless and enrich someone else without taking a penny in return. It was the joy of giving that Paul was experiencing.

I was invited by some missionaries to go to the south of France to hold a Bible conference. They needed to be refreshed from the Word of God, but I knew too that they could not afford it, and they told me so when they called. They said, We cannot afford to give you an honorarium. I said, That is alright with me. I will come anyway. Can you meet the expenses of the trip? I asked. They said, We will try. I knew that they were going to try out of very meager salaries, as they lived in one of the highest cost of living areas in the world. So I went to France. Through a misunderstanding of communication I was not met at the airport in Lyon, and I sat there for 24 hours waiting to be picked up. I finally got out to the conference ground and we had a great three or four days together feasting on the Word of God. I saw their spirits blessed as they heard the truth. At the close of the conference they came to me and said, We have put together a check from all of our contributions here. We do not know if it is enough, but it is all we have got, so here it is. It was not enough, hardly covering half of my expenses. But I had the exquisite pleasure of turning the check over and endorsing it on the back and handing it back, saying, Use this to establish a fund to bring more speakers in to minister to you. To see the joy and unexpected surprise in their faces was all the reward I needed. I went away, richly repaid for that ministry.

Lord, teach me to be giving and generous, not always asking, What's in it for me? Help me to not be squeezed in the mold of the world. Teach me to be like yourself, Lord, to give freely and gladly even though nothing is given back.

Life Application​

Is a price tag attached to our service to others? Do we give and serve with grace, and with gratitude to the Lord Jesus Christ who gave all that we may have eternal riches?

Daily Devotion © 2014, 2025 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A daily devotion for October 20th​

No Temptation​

No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.

1 Corinthians 10:13

Oh what an encouragement this is! This is written down that we might understand three specific things about our testings: First, they are common to all. I do not know anything that is harder to believe, when we are under testing, than that. We all think, Why isn't this happening to others? They deserve it so much more than me. Why is it happening to me? Well, it is just your turn, that is all. Everybody goes through it. You are not permitted to witness their martyrdom, but you will not be allowed to miss yours. You do not see what they go through most of the time, but no one is left out. Trials are common to all. Their time is coming, if it has not already, so do not ever allow yourself to think that what is happening to you is unique. It is not at all. It is very common, and the minute you start inquiring around, you will find a dozen that have gone through it too.

Second, though they are common trials, they are also controlled pressures — God is faithful, he will not allow you to be tempted above your strength. Again, that is hard to believe, is it not? We say, Well, it has already happened. I am already beyond my strength. No, you are not. You just think you are. God knows your strength greater than you do. He knows how much you can handle, and how much you cannot. One of the basic principles of training in an athletic contest is to develop things you do not think you can do right now, to put more pressure on you than you think you can handle, is it not? And you discover you can handle it. This is what God does with us. He puts the pressure on, but it is controlled pressure. It will never be more than you can handle as long as you understand the third thing.

The third thing is the conquering grace that he provides, the way out that is always present, never failing. What is that way of escape? It is dependence. Discipline is necessary, but so is dependence. All through the Old Testament the heroes and heroines of faith have taught us that in the hour of testing God strips away all human support so that we may learn that he is enough. God is our refuge and our strength, a very present help in time of trouble (Ps.46:1), and we will never discover that until everything else has been taken away. Then we begin to discover that God can hold us steady. He himself is the way of escape, and that is why he puts us through pressures and testings.

Lord, I pray that this may be my experience in the days that lie ahead in this troubled world.

Life Application​

What three aspects of our trials and temptations are assured to us as God's people? How does this address our complaints, as well as our confidence in God's purposeful ending?

Daily Devotion © 2014, 2025 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A daily devotion for October 21st​

Idolatry​

Therefore, my dear friends, flee from idolatry.

1 Corinthians 10:14

There were, of course, idol temples in Corinth. On the hill behind the city was the temple of Aphrodite where male and female prostitutes plied their trade in the name of the worship of Venus, the goddess of love. Within the city itself were scattered many temples; their ruins are still visible today. These Christians had once been idol worshipers, bowing down before these images, their lives being controlled by the fear and the philosophy of the Greek and the Roman pantheons of gods.

I do not think that the apostle is concerned that they are going to go back to bowing down to an idol. What he has in mind is not bowing and scraping before an image, but succumbing to the temptation to enjoy again the atmosphere found at the idol temple. There were many fun things going on regarding idolatry that some of the Corinthians were hoping to be able to hang onto. If you had lived in Corinth in that 1st century you would have recognized that everyone regarded the temple as the most exciting place in town. There you could get the best food, served up in the open-air restaurant. There they had the wildest music and all the seductive pleasures of wine, women and song. If you wanted to enjoy yourself in Corinth, you went to the temple.

Paul is concerned lest these Corinthians, in seeking to enjoy what would be normal pleasures of life, would be tempted to go back into it to such a degree that, ultimately, they would find themselves lured back into belief in these idols and their power. Idolatry is not something you do outwardly with your body. Idolatry occurs whenever anyone or anything becomes more important to you than the living God. This is the greatest temptation we all face. When we fall back into the place where something becomes of greater importance to us and more controlling in our life than God himself, we have succumbed again to idolatry.

How easily this kind of idolatry happens to us today! You can get so wrapped up in sports, for instance, that you live for them; they take over in your life. When dancing becomes more than recreation but is something you cannot put aside, then it becomes idolatry. Skiing can do the same thing. Fishing can keep you away from your ministry. Television robs you of Bible study. Gourmet eating that demands your attention and your money is a form of idolatry. These things are not wrong in themselves, but it is easy to fall prey to them. They lure you on into more and more involvement until, before you know it, they are more important than God. That is idolatry. You have a new god before you know it, a new love and a new master.

Lord, I live in a dangerous world. I often forget it, thinking that I can go along with many of these things and I find myself beginning to be drawn away, to lose my fervor for the things of God. Help me at that moment, Lord, to flee idolatry.

Life Application​

Are we giving first priority to the indwelling Life and Love of the Lord Jesus Christ? Are we allowing other interests to deceive and detract from loving Him with all our heart, mind and soul?

Daily Devotion © 2014, 2025 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A daily devotion for October 22nd​

Headship​

But I want you to realize that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God.

1 Corinthians 11:3

When the apostle uses the word head here he is speaking figuratively of that which sits on top of the neck. Even in the ancient world, it was understood to be the control center of the body. That is what the head of our body does; it runs the body; it is in charge; it is the direction setter of the body. Used, figuratively, therefore, the word head means primarily leadership, and thus it is used in this passage. This is clear from the threefold use of it that the apostle makes here.

The first one is, the head of every man is Christ. There is the declaration of Christ's right to lead the whole human race. He is the leader of the race in the mind and thinking of God, and ultimately, as Scripture tells us, there will come a day when all humanity, without exception, shall bow the knee and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord Romans 14:11, Philippians 2:11). So whether we know it or not, Christ is our head, and we are responsible to follow him. That is the whole objective of life for any person who wishes to fulfill his humanity.

Move down to the third level of headship mentioned here, the head of Christ is God. Here we have a manifestation of headship demonstrated for us in history. Jesus, the Son of God, equal to the Father in his deity, nevertheless, when he assumes humanity, submits himself to the leadership of the Father. Everywhere Jesus went he stated that he always did those things which pleased his Father. He even said, My Father is greater than I, (John 14:28). That does not challenge the equality of the members of the Godhead, but when Christ became man he voluntarily consented to take a lower position than the Father. It is in that sense he says, My Father is greater than I.

Those two headships help us to understand the meaning of the central one, the head of the woman is man. The RSV says, the head of the woman is her husband because the subsequent passage has in view a married woman. Headship is most visible in marriage where it manifests that role of support which a woman undertakes voluntarily when she marries a man. He is to be leader and she assumes a support role to help him fulfill the objectives of their life together as Christ, his head, makes clear. Now if she does not want to do that she is perfectly free not to undertake that role. No woman should get married if she does not want to. This is a role that she is perfectly free to forego if she chooses. If she wants to give herself to the pursuit of her own objectives, she has every right to do so. But then she ought not to get married, because marriage means that she is willing to recognize her husband as the leader of the two.

In turn, the man is to discover the secrets God has put into his wife, and seek to encourage her, so that she will be all that she is capable of being. This is the argument of Ephesians 5. They are one and no man hates his own flesh. If he hurts his wife he hurts himself. There is no way that he can achieve the fullness of his manhood in marriage apart from encouraging his wife to utilize all the gifts God has put in her. This is the reciprocal relationship seen in Scripture on marriage. It is this that creates the beauty of every wedding. When a man and a woman stand together to be married, the marriage ceremony has for centuries recognized that she is giving herself to him, and he promises to treat that gift with kindness, tenderness and loving care.

Lord, I pray that I would remember that my views of life are often shallow, superficial and inadequate, but whenever I conform to the divinely given order I find myself opening a door into joy and love and peace such as I never dreamed of; that your yoke is easy and your burden is light.

Life Application​

Do we need to revisit the view of the role of headship as demeaning to a man's wife? Does our concept of 'submission' equate with our Lord Jesus' submission to the Father? Do we then value it as a privileged and holy calling?

Daily Devotion © 2014, 2025 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A daily devotion for October 23rd​

The Lord's Supper​

For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me. In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.

1 Corinthians 11:23-25

Paul passes on to them and to us our Lord's emphasis upon two remarkable symbols, the bread and the cup. Deliberately, after the Passover feast, Jesus took the bread, and when he had broken it, to make it available to all the disciples, he said to them, This is my body. Unfortunately some have taken that to mean that he was teaching that the bread becomes his body, but as you look at the story of the Upper Room, it is clear that he meant it in a symbolic sense. If it was literal, then there were two bodies of Christ present in the Upper Room, one in which he lived and by which he held the bread, and the bread itself. But clearly our Lord means this as a symbol. This represents my body which is for you.

Not broken for you, as some versions have it. That is not a very accurate rendering. It is not broken for us. The Scriptures tell us that not a bone of his body would be broken. Rather it is intended for us to live on; that is the symbolism. Thus when we gather and take the bread of the Lord's Table, break it and pass it among ourselves, we are reminding ourselves that Jesus is our life: He is the One by whom we live. As Paul says, I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me, (Galatians 2:20 KJV).

This is what the bread symbolizes — that he is to be our power by which we obey the demands of God, the Word of God, to love one another, to forgive one another, to be tender and merciful, kind and courteous to one another, to not return evil for evil but to pray for those who persecute us and mistrust us and misuse us. His life in us enables us to be what God asks us to be. We live by means of Christ.

Following that, our Lord took the cup. The wine of the cup symbolizes his blood which he said is the blood of the New Covenant, the new arrangement for living that God has made, by which the old life is ended. That is what blood always means: Blood is the end of a life, and the old life in which we were dependent upon ourselves, and lived for ourselves, and wanted only to be the center of attention is over. That is what the cup means. We agree to that; we are no longer to live for ourselves. You do not have final rights to your life, and the price is the blood of Jesus. Therefore, when we take that cup and drink it, we are publicly proclaiming that we agree with that sentence of death upon our old life, and believe that the Christian life is a continual experience of life coming out of death.

Power with God only comes when we die to the wisdom and the power of man. We give up one so that the other may be manifest within us. That is what the cup means. It is a beautiful picture of what Jesus said of himself, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abides alone, (John 12:24 KJV). Nothing is more descriptive of the emptiness of life than that phrase abides alone — lonely, restless, bored, miserable, unhappy. That is the life that tries to live for itself and its own needs and its own rights, but the Christian life is one in which that is freely and voluntarily surrendered. If the corn of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it will bring forth much fruit, and by the participation in the cup this is what we are declaring.

Lord Jesus, thank you for giving your life up that I might have new life in you.

Life Application​

When we partake of the symbols of bread and wine, do we honor the richly profound reality they represent? Does our gratitude for His indwelling Life find expression in sacrificial love, no longer living for self interest but for Him who gave Himself for us?

Daily Devotion © 2014, 2025 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A daily devotion for October 24th​

How the Body Works​

Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body — whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free — and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.

1 Corinthians 12:12-13

In this chapter, the apostle begins to use an analogy that will help us understand how the church is designed to function. He places before us a human body, and draws lessons from it all through the rest of the chapter, as to its parallel with the functioning of the Body of Christ. It is more than a mere figure of speech to say that the church is the Body of Christ. God really takes that seriously. It is so much so his body by which he works today that he has given us a visual aid, to live in, and walk around in, and examine, and think through what is the meaning of the church as the Body of Christ. That is where Paul begins. Just as the body is one and yet has many members, he says, so also it is with Christ. Notice it is not so also it is with the church, because it is the church and Christ that constitutes the Body of Christ. If you stand in front of a mirror and look at your body you should be struck by the fact that it is divided into two major sections, the head and the torso. The head is the control center of the body, while the torso is the biggest part of it, and the part to which the members, the arms, the legs, etc., are attached. This is especially designed to help us understand how the church is to function, for the whole body, plus the head, constitutes the Body of Christ.

This is an amazing statement here that we are part of Christ. That is what Paul is saying. We constitute the means by which Christ functions within the world, and it is very important to hold that concept in your mind if you want to understand how the church works. It is a body with many members, and yet it is only one body. It is not many bodies, many denominations. They are all tied together by sharing the same life, and they are tied with the head so that they function as his means of expressing his life in this world.

Paul answers the question, How did we get into that body? We were not born into it as infants; the Body of Christ does not consist of everybody in the world, only certain ones. His answer is clear, For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body. That is the baptism with the Holy Spirit predicted by both John the Baptist and Jesus himself, fulfilled for the first time on the Day of Pentecost, and continually fulfilled ever since whenever anybody believes in Jesus. They are baptized then by the Spirit into the Body of Christ and made part of the living Christ as he has been working in the world through all these centuries since.

The church is not just a group of religious people gathered together to enjoy certain mutually desired functions. It is a group of people who share the same life, who belong to the same Lord, who are filled with the same Spirit, who are given gifts by that same Spirit, and who are intended to function together to change the world by the life of God. That is the work of the church.

Thank you, Father, that I am part of the Body of Christ. I have been baptized into one body and made to drink of one Spirit. I pray that on that basis I may fulfill my function in life to be an instrument of your working right where I live and work.

Life Application​

Have we given serious consideration to the Church as the Body of Christ on earth? How does this affect our mission and our Source of power and wisdom from Christ our Head?

Daily Devotion © 2014, 2025 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A daily devotion for October 25th​

The Supreme Priority​

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

1 Corinthians 13:1-3

Analyzing those words is like taking a beautiful flower and tearing it apart. But some analysis is necessary to fully grasp what Paul is saying here. We should remember that this chapter on love fits beautifully with what the apostle has been talking about in the previous section. In Chapter 12 Paul talked about the gifts of the Spirit. Here in Chapter 13 we come to the fruit of the Spirit. Paul has introduced it with a hint already that the fruit of the Spirit is far more important than the gifts of the Spirit. That we become loving people is far more important than whether we are active, busy people. Both are necessary, but one is greater than the other. Paul has said so: I will show you a still more excellent way. That is the way of love.

I call this the fruit of the Spirit because in the letter to the Galatians Paul details for us what the fruit of the Spirit is. It is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). All of those qualities really are manifestations of love. This chapter is setting forth that quality of love which is the work of the Spirit of God within us reproducing the character of Christ. Once you have love all these other qualities that are part of the fruit of the Spirit are possible to you. If we have the love of God in our hearts, then we can be patient; we can be peaceful; we can be good, loving, faithful, gentle and kind.

The word love is not the Greek word eros. That word is used to describe erotic love. And the word here is not philia, which means affection or friendship. Paul is talking about agape, which is a commitment of the will to cherish and uphold another person. This is the word that is used to describe the love of God. It is a word addressed to the will. It is a decision that you make and a commitment that you have launched upon to treat another person with concern, with care, with thoughtfulness, and to work for his or her best interests. That is what love is, and this is what Paul is talking about.

This kind of love is possible only to those who first love God. Any attempt to try to exercise love like this without having first loved God is to present a fleshly kind of love. There are two great commandments. The first is to love the Lord with all your heart. The second is to love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:37-39). We try to turn that around. Many of us are trying to love our neighbor without having loved God, and it is impossible to do that. It is the love of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, as Paul puts it in Romans 5:5, that fulfills the definition that is given in this chapter. You cannot love other people until you first love God.

Love for God is not difficult, because all you need to do is be aware of how he has loved you. Above all else he has loved you in having given his Son for you, having redeemed you and forgiven you. Your guilt is taken away. By these means God has called you to himself and given you a standing before him as a son. To remember all that is to be stirred with love for God. When you love God you awaken your capacity to love people. Love is a supernatural quality. God alone can give this kind of love. God alone can lead you to make a choice to love somebody who does not appeal to you. Yet that is what God's love is. That is what is so desperately needed and so beautifully described in this passage. It can only come as we love God and love is awakened within us by the Holy Spirit.

Lord, I pray that the gift of love may be manifest in my life.

Life Application​

Are we long on good works, and good intentions -- but short on love? What does this infer about our intimacy with our God, who Is Love? Are we looking for something less than genuine love, in all the wrong places?

Daily Devotion © 2014, 2025 by Ray Stedman Ministries.